Noongar

For other uses, see Noongar (disambiguation).

Noongar groups

The Noongar (/ˈnʊŋɑːr/, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar /ˈnjʊŋɑːr/, Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga[1] /ˈjʊŋɑː/) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast. There are 14 different groups in the Noongar cultural bloc: Amangu, Ballardong, Yued, Kaneang, Koreng, Mineng, Njakinjaki, Njunga, Pibelmen, Pindjarup, Wadandi, Whadjuk, Wiilman and Wudjari.[a] The Noongar people refer to their land as Noongar boodja.[b][3]

The members of the collective Noongar cultural bloc descend from people who spoke several languages and dialects that were often mutually intelligible.[citation needed] What is now classified as the Noongar language is a member of the large Pama–Nyungan language family. Contemporary Noongar speak Australian Aboriginal English (a dialect of the English language) laced with Noongar words and occasionally inflected by its grammar. Most contemporary Noongar trace their ancestry to one or more of these groups. In the 2011 Australian census, 10,549 people identified as indigenous in the south-west of Western Australia.[4] By 2021, this number had increased to 14,355.[5]

  1. ^ SWAL&SC.
  2. ^ Allbrook 2014, p. 146, n. 4.
  3. ^ "Connection to Country". Kaartdijin Noongar – Noongar Knowledge. South West Aboriginal Land & Sea Council. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  4. ^ "2011 South-Western WA, Census Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics". www.abs.gov.au. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  5. ^ "2021 South-Western WA, Census Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics". www.abs.gov.au. Retrieved 24 November 2023.


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